


Headache

by orphan_account



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, Fluff, GLaDOS loves her girlfriend, I’m extremely dyslexic please forgive my spelling errors, Mute Chell (Portal), Short Story, Wheatly being a good friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:20:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22705366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A very short story I wrote about Chell getting a migraine, and her wonderful robot friends (and robot girlfriend) take care of her. Takes places post canon. Wheatley lives with Chell and GLaDOS.
Relationships: Chell/GLaDOS
Comments: 3
Kudos: 95





	Headache

It was midday, and Chell’s routine was going about as normal. GLaDOS has some maintenance to do, and Wheatley was god knows where doing god knows what. So, Chell sat herself outside, not too far from the entrance of Aperture science. GLaDOS gets a bit scared if she goes out much farther than this without warning. It was a nice day outside, very sunny. Extremely sunny in fact. Chell has to squint in order to see anything at all, even then it was still very bright. ‘Sun would probably do me some good.’ 

Wind rushed all around the building, wheat swaying in fields within eyesight. Opening her eyes some more, Chell tried to take it all in. After a while, the squinting became painful, like a familiar pressure in her head. Sitting up, Chell went back inside, hoping the dim lighting of the lab would get rid of her forming headache. Cool air tickled her skin. With a sigh, Chell opened her eyes fully. The dim lighting didn’t do much. Her head still hurt. ‘I’ll be fine. I’ve felt much, much, much worse than this.’ 

Ignoring the dull pain in her head, the former test subject began walking deeper into the labs. There was always something to do around Aperture. Or, at least, GLaDOS always had a project she was working on and Wheatley is always up to something dumb. Once Chell reached the halfway mark of the lab, she heard some clanging. The sound wasn’t helping her head situation. Poking her head around, she saw Wheatley, making something. Well, attempting to make something. Wheatley didn’t wait much before he began talking. “Chell, love! Haven’t seen you all day! Where have you been?” Wheatley didn’t expect an answer, he mostly asked out of programming and politeness. “I’ve been trying to make a turret from scratch. I was thinking I could make it to be friendly, and preferably without any bullets.” 

Chell nodded up and down with a genuine smile. She tried not to move her neck that much, as the pain seemed to be getting sensitive to stimuli. Chell couldn’t exactly communicate she wasn’t feeling well, and Wheatley was none the wiser. The small robot glanced up at his friend and began speaking again. “I could really use a set of hands to put it all together. Would you be interested in helping?” All Chell wanted to do was close her eyes, but she convinced herself it wasn’t so bad and nodded yes. “Brilliant! Here, I’ll give you instructions as we go along.” 

About thirty or so minutes had passed since Wheatley had started giving directions, but it was getting harder for Chell to focus. The dull pain had progressed into throbbing on both sides of her head. Without being able to communicate, Chell attempted to keep up with her friend's instruction, but she was just in too much pain. Slowly, Chell placed the metal piece she was holding down and shoved her face into her hands. This action quickly got the attention of Wheatley. “You alright, love?” 

Chell shook her head no. After rubbing her eyes vigorously, Chell placed her head down between her arms on the table. Wheatley moved himself as close to Chell as he could, but moving around on his own was always difficult. “What’s wrong Chell? Are you crying..?” Wheatley had only seen Chell cry once, but he remembered her rubbing her eyes a lot. 

Shaking no, Chell lifted her head as high as she could and pointed to her temples. Her face was tired and her eyes looked watery. This worried Wheatley. “Oh no. Is this the brain damage?! Maybe it set in late or something!” 

Chell didn’t respond, she simply rested her head back down on the table and continued to block out any light from her vision. Meanwhile, the gears in Wheatley’s brain were turning the best he could. “What can I do? I don’t even know what’s wrong!” Pausing for a moment, the small came to a conclusion: GLaDOS would know what to do. She always does. 

Rolling along the table, Wheatley nudged his friend a few times. “Come on love, we need to get you to GLaDOS. She can help you. Probably.” Chell wanted to get up, but the pain was much more than a headache now. Shakily, Chell rose from her seat, grabbed Wheatley and started to GLaDOS’s room. Wheatley seemed somewhat relieved to see his friend walking again. “That's it! We’re almost there.” As much as Chell loved when Wheatley was thoughtful, she just wanted silence. After shushing Wheatley, Chell placed him down to open the door. The air was warmer in GLaDOS’s room. Perfect for sleep. 

GLaDOS turned to greet her visitors, but Chell had already forgotten Wheatley at the door and slumped into the mattress she kept on the floor of the operating room. The former test subject had lied on her back, draping her arm over her eyes. Only a few seconds passed before the small core rolled himself into the room. Once in GLaDOS’s sight, he started on his panic induced rant.

“GLaDOS you have to help Chell! She has brain damage or something! I don’t know, but you have to help her!” 

“Brain damage?! How did she get brain damage?! Wheatley if you somehow gave her brain damage I will crush you.” 

All the yelling prompted a groan from Chell. She flipped herself over and buried her face in the mattress. 

With a lower tone, GLaDOS continued. “Okay start from the top. What happened. And keep in mind I will destroy you if you hurt Chell in any way, shape or form.” 

Wheatley started his panicked explanation. He kept his eye on the ground, avoiding the orange and a grey glare of GLaDOS. “Well, her and I, we were in the  
lab. . . She was helping me build something when she started to look tired.” Wheatley took a brief pause to look at Chell, guilt creeping up in him. “Her eyes were watering but she said she wasn’t crying! She couldn’t even hold her head up. GLaDOS please tell me you can help her!” 

The larger robot didn’t respond immediately, instead she kept staring at Wheatley, waiting to see if he was done being dramatic. 

“You absolute moron, she has a headache. She’s not dying.”

Embarrassed, Wheatley looked back up. “Oh.” There was a few seconds of silence. “What’s a headache?” 

If GLaDOS could roll her eyes, she would. With an even lower voice, the larger robot began explaining. “It’s when humans experience a pain in their head. It’s in the name. Head-ache. Pretty self explanatory.” Wheatley didn’t respond. Instead, he rolled over to Chell and gently nudged her. She wasn’t asleep, but certainly wasn’t 100% conscious.

“What can we do to help her?” 

GLaDOS promptly turned off all the lights in the room and extended her structure towards Chell. “She just needs rest.” Usually Chell slept either on a mattress she kept in the operating room, or she slept in the groove of GLaDOS’s exterior. And GLaDOS thought she didn’t look too comfortable on the floor right now. 

Once GLaDOS lowered her head, Chell weakly climbed into her familiar resting spot. It didn’t take long for her to get comfortable. You’d expect robots to be cold, but GLaDOS was surprisingly warm. She did have a lot of systems to operate. Chell crossed her arms, turned over and nuzzled the side of her face as a silent thank you to GLaDOS. 

The low hum of the robot's internal fans made for relaxing white noise. The mix of a toasty atmosphere and the gentle sounds put Chell to sleep almost immediately.


End file.
